


The Kids Meant Well

by anarchycox



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Get Together, Melinda likes Phil, Phil likes board games, Stuck in a Cabin, huddle for warmth, vague timeline, vaguely canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-21
Updated: 2016-12-21
Packaged: 2018-09-10 18:38:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,475
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8928550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anarchycox/pseuds/anarchycox
Summary: The team think Phil and Melinda need a break - the two never stop working. They just never meant for the locking mechanism to freeze, or the other door to be blocked with snow, trapping the two in the cabin. With a dead generator, and not too much firewood.Guess they'll have to huddle for warmth ;)





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [QiaolianMM](https://archiveofourown.org/users/QiaolianMM/gifts).



> I hope that you enjoy this little ball of fluff.

“Bobbi, are you sure about these co-ordinates?” Phil stared at his compass. His pack was starting to get heavy and May was looking angry. They had been walking for hours.

“Yeah, boss. This is where they insisted on meeting. They wanted secure.” Bobbi’s voice was cheerful in his ear. A little too cheerful, really. Phil had thought something was up with this mission, but couldn’t quite put his finger on it. “Come on, you can understand them being scared. A HYDRA scientist wanting to defect? This is a big get. So go get them.”

“She sounded too upbeat.” Coulson said.

“She tends to.” was Melinda’s only reply. “But strange we’re the only boots on the ground.”

“The person said, only a small party. I’m the director, and you are the best at my back, makes sense.” Phil finally saw the cabin. “There.” They trudged through the snow to the door. Melinda did a quick circle of the building and gave the all clear signal.

Phil knocked on the door. “Hello? I’m Director Coulson from SHIELD. You requested a meeting.”

“Come in.” A deep voice said. 

Phil and Melinda cautiously entered the cabin which was fairly dark. They looked around for any traps or other people but there was just the one person in the shadows by the back exit. 

“Come in, don’t want to let the warm out.” the voice rasped.

Melinda closed the door behind them and heard just a little extra hum beyond the snick of the door. She had Phil behind her in a second. “Extra lock or sensor on the door.”

“Yup!” the voice said cheerfully. They opened the back door and threw off their hood. “Bye!” Skye ran out the door and slammed it shut. They could hear the QuinJet rev up behind the cabin. And then they heard another noise. A cracking, heavy sound and a thump against the back door.

Phil tried to open the door and it wouldn’t budge. Melinda put her shoulder into it and nothing. She looked out the window. The jet vertical takeoff caused all the snow on the trees beside the cabin to fall and block the door. And the front door was useless to them.

“Report!” Phil yelled into his comms.

“Yes, well, the plan didn’t go perfectly.” Bobbi said into his ear.

“Perhaps, you would be so kind to explain the plan.”

“You two needed a day off” Bobbi said. “You’ve both gone insane with work and everybody has been stressed because of your stress. So we figured just a night away would make it better. But we knew if we told either of you that, you’d just brush it off. We had tried before.”

“That spa in Paris.”

“We didn’t expect you and Melinda to find an organ harvesting ring, we just wanted you to have a damn massage.” Bobbi yelled. He could hear her take a breath.

Phil looked at Melinda. Shit that was her pissed off face. “Agent Morse, get us out of here, right now.”

“See, there’s the problem. You are stuck.”

“The back door is, the front can be opened, just unlock it.”

“Fitz in designing the lock forgot to factor in the cold and the system shorted. We have to dig out the back door and a storm is moving in. You have food and firewood for when the generator dies in about 24 hours. We didn’t charge it long term. I admit some shoddy planning here.”

“Which we will be talking about once we are retrieved. Update me when you are an hour out of rescuing us, otherwise I don’t want to hear your voice.”

“Yes, sir.” Bobbi said quietly before it went silent.

“I’m killing all our people.”

“To be fair, I doubt Lance was a part of this.”

“But to be sure. A full clean sweep.” Melinda looked around the cabin. Opened the three door. “Closet, bathroom, bedroom. No fireplace in the bedroom.”

“So we’ll be camping out in the main area when the generator goes tomorrow.” They hear a whine and the lights go out. Phil hangs his head. “I should never talk.”

“Search for candles. I’ll start the fire.” Melinda sounded resigned.

Phil found candles and a couple flashlights and even an old camp lantern that was functioning. Melinda got the fire going but was careful with the wood. They had a decent pile but they needed it to last. It was still light out, so they didn’t worry about the candles yet.

“Food is mostly snacking stuff, some bottles of water. Rationed can last four days easily.” Phil said. “Five or six if we have to. But don’t think it will be that long.”

“No, and besides worst case we can eat your leg.”

“Why am I being offered up for sacrifice?” Phil protested.

Melinda shrugged. “I use my legs more in fighting than you do. Plus I feel I would be too stringy to enjoy. Your leg has more -”

“Okay, okay. If we are stuck for longer than 3 weeks we can discuss eating my leg.” Phil looked at her. “But no trying to season me in the meal time. Mean time. Dammit May.”

May fought back a smile and went to see what other treasures might be in the cabin. There wasn’t much, but they did find a stash of old board games.

“No.”

“But RISK, Monopoly.” Phil quivered. “Clue!”

“No. Besides it is starting to get dark and they are difficult games to play in shadow.”

“Tomorrow?”

“I will stuff the Monopoly top hat up  your nose if you make me play that game. Clue will be negotiable.” 

Phil smiled happily and stacked the games and the cribbage board and deck of cards he found on the side table. They settled on the sofa and snacked on jerky and canned soup heated over the fire. The hike in finally caught up with them and they were quiet the rest of the night until they gathered the blankets from the bedroom and sleeping bags from the closet and made a nest in front of the fire. They knew they were safe enough to not worry about shifts and drifted off to sleep.

In the morning Phil woke up feeling gross and realized he had slept with his contacts in. He grabbed his pack and popped them out and put them in their solution and slid on his glasses, he knew it would be a day or two before he’d feel comfortable putting them back in.

Melinda was going through her morning routine and he just sat on the ground and watched her move. It was meditative watching the slow movements. “Tea.” she said.

“Right.” Phil blinked and went to the cupboards. “Good news there are two tea bags. And…” he whimpered a little. “Coffee beans and no working grinder.”

“So I am stuck with you, in a small cabin, until at least tomorrow, and you will be going through caffeine withdrawal.” 

“Yes.”

Melinda stood straight. “Let me knock you out, for both our sakes.”

“No, you’ll eat me.”

“It was a joke Phil.”

“You say that now, but I’m on to you. No knocking me out. I’ll be fine. There’s oatmeal. I’ll get some going.” Phil made up the two packets of oatmeal and realized something. “We have water. But we don’t have hot water.”

“We can survive.” Melinda shrugged.

“We smell.” 

“We’ve smelled worse. That time in the sewers in Tel Aviv.”

“Yes but we had decontamination showers.”

“Phil.”

“Fine, we’ll just be a little gamey.” Phil made up the oatmeal over fire and gave her a bowl. “No honey.” He watched her jaw clench. “No cinnamon either, just plain instant oats. Yum.”

“Sustenance is what matters.”

“I know they meant well but why couldn’t they trap us on a tropical island?”

“Because you don’t like them anymore.” Melinda grimaced as she swallowed the food.

“No, I don’t suppose I do.” Phil agreed. He pushed the bowl away and went to stare out a window. Not that the view was much with the snow coming down. “We should put some towels around the windows, block the cold from seeping in.” Phil went to the bathroom and fussed about making the cabin a little warmer.

“Okay. We can play Monopoly.” Melinda said after watching his busy work.

“Great, I’ll set up the board. It will be fun I promise.” Phil grinned.

They switched to Clue after Melinda did indeed put him in a headlock and stuff the player piece in his nose.

Phil noticed though, that neither of them seemed bored, even though sometimes they just sat on the couch together and stared at the fire. He was starting to feel the lack of caffeine and closed his eyes. Melinda’s fingers pressed against his temples and began to circle. They didn’t say anything, she just kept up the gentle motion until he gave a slight nod when he was feeling better. 

It was soup and jerky again for dinner, though they splurged and ate some dried fruit as well. The cabin was growing colder despite their measures and they needed to be careful with the wood. That night instead of the few feet between them they were pressed back to back on the ground. 

“You are right, you know.” Melinda said.

“About what?”

“We do smell.”

Phil laughed a little. “At least there is the occasional scent of your hair, it’s always nice.”

“You know what my hair smells like.”

“You use scented shampoo.”

“I do not.”

“Well it has a bit of coconut oil in it, or something.” Phil shifted a little. “I dunno, just a Melinda scent. Like the liniment you use for your knees after a long fight. The baby powder in your knuckles from sparring. Little things.” Phil sighed. “I’m just full of useless information.”

“You can smell like ink, because of that little journal you keep, and of metal, from that lucky quarter you fidget with when you are thinking your way around the rules. You use a shave cream that has a hint of mint in it. And when you can you add a drop of vanilla to your coffee.” There was a pause. “I’m just full of important information.”

“How is that important?”

She didn’t answer.

******************************

In the morning the snow had stopped but the cold was seeping in more and more.

“Call in, see what the sitrep is.” Melinda suggested.

Phil contacted their people and learned the snow was done and unlikely to start up again. They should be out of there tonight. “We should be safe burning a little more wood.” Phil went to where the pile had been. But there were only three logs left. He shrugged and threw them all on. “Stretching it out at this point wouldn’t do much.”

“No.” Melinda stood up and went to her starting position for her routine and then stopped. “Screw it.” She went back and huddled under the blanket. “It is too damn cold, and more working out just seems like a bad plan. Get back under here.”

Phil went to the cupboards and grabbed the one tea bag left and some trail mix. He made her a cup of tea before he settled into the nest. Melinda nibbled on the breakfast and then took a sip of tea. She handed the mug to Phil and he took a sip, twisting the cup so his mouth lined up where hers had been.

“You’ve always done that when we share. Why?”

“If the rim was laced with poison, you’d have already stripped it off, so only one of us goes down.”

Melinda laughed a little.

“Plus just warmer to take a sip where your lips have already been.” Phil handed her back the cup. They were quiet as they finished the tea. “Tell me about the place in the Australian Outback. That plan of yours.”

“Doesn’t matter right? You’re all better. Or, better anyways.”

“Always been curious.” Phil admitted. “It wasn’t the right call at the time, but I have thought about what it might have been like.”

“It was bigger than this.” Melinda said after a moment. “One story, but more sprawling. Flatland on an empty road, we’d see anyone coming. Ground good enough to grow some food, even had a small barn.”

“Would we have had a cow?”

“Weapons and training space.” she nudged him. “Maybe you could have had a sheep or a goat or such. Town was a 20 minute drive and mostly a pit stop where they don’t ask too many questions.” She looked at the cup. “It had a porch swing.”

“I like porch swings.”

“I know.”

“It wouldn’t have been fair to you.”

Melinda looked at him. “You still don’t get it do you?”

“Guess I don’t.”

“It would have had you, so it would have been fair to me.”

Phil watched Melinda’s face for any of her minor tells, ones that he could read as loud as a neon sign. 

“I have a place in Portugal, on the water. It has a copy of A Wrinkle in Time.” he looked at her. “Every back up place I’ve ever had, has a copy of that book.”

Neither said that it was Melinda’s favourite.

Phil put his hand under the blanket beside Melinda’s hip, palm up. It might have been seconds, it might have been an hour, but her hand moved and rested on top of his and she leaned against him.

They could hear the team digging them out and stayed close until they heard a shovel strike the door. They then separated and started to tidy up the cabin.

The door burst open and at least three begin began to apologize, loudly and over top each other. Phil eventually held up his hand. “It’s fine, you meant well. Just next time? Make sure the place is properly stocked before you pull one of your ‘good’ ideas.”

Melinda didn’t say anything just put on her coat and grabbed both their packs. They flew home in silence, the team guilty, Phil contemplative. 

It was late but Phil went to the kitchen and Melinda was making a snack. “I couldn’t sleep.” he said. “Was thinking some warm milk.”

“Or, you could join me. I was going to watch a movie.” she picked up the tray which had popcorn and chocolate. “It’s Clue.”

“Good pick.” Phil said. He went over and took the tray from her. “You kind of sucked at the game. Maybe you’ll get some pointers.”

Melinda’s grin was blinding and then she kissed his cheek. “I don’t know, I think we’ve both got a clue now don’t we?” she walked away towards her quarters and Phil followed.

  
Maybe the team would get a bonus for the stunt they pulled. He just wouldn’t let them know why. They’d be way too pleased with themselves.


End file.
